G.Skill Falcon II 128GB SSD review -
Final Words and Verdict

Final Words & Conclusion

The G.Skill Falcon II is a top notch product. It is however also a little confusing based on the Falcon name. See, as a follow-up to the original Falcon series, you expect the Falcon II products to be faster, but the fact is that the original Falcon SSD with Samsung NAND Flash is faster. So that's doesn't make much sense.

That aside, it's a grand product though. The usage of the new ECO barefoot controller with Micron 34nm flash memory makes the Falcon II a very high-performing product that can be a little more affordable. We expect the product in the end to be 15% to 20% cheaper opposed to the original Falcon SSD. And that would make the 128GB version hover at roughly 300 EUR.

The biggest problem for you the end user will be the actual availability. To date it is very hard to spot any SSD from G.Skill anywhere in the stores. We do hope that improves real soon, as the G.Skill product definitely oozes value and offers rock hard, good performance. Unfortunately if a product is hard to find, typically the e-tailers increase pricing (question vs. demand).

We hope very much that there will be a high-volume of the Falcon II series available on the market as the product would simply be worth every penny -- whether that is in your desktop PC or laptop.

The performance is as advertised with read speeds up-to roughly 220 MB/sec and write performance at roughly 150 MB/sec, depending on how you measure. It's good to see the new Firmware support TRIM, so if you use Windows 7 that increases performance over a long time-span. We would prefer a Garbage Cleaning feature like the OCZ Agility and Vertex drives offer though, drives with such embedded technology optimize themselves once they are in IDLE, keeping advertised performance at 99% at all times.

Concluding -- it still amazes me where we are anno 2009/2010 with Solid State technology. It was only two years ago where JMicron based controllers took the market by surprise with a lot of performance issues and high prizes. Prices are now stabilizing. Volume went up, performance went up and the performance consistency is stable.

The Falcon II carries a price tag of roughly 300 EUR for the 128GB model making it roughly 50 EUR cheaper than the competition, it's a grand product and we hope to see some good availability very soon.

What's next in SSD development you ask? Well, we feel that garbage control should be implemented on all SSDs, SATA 3 (6GBPs) to clear out the SATA2 bandwidth limitation and even faster drives with higher volumes. Yes Sir .. you can expect a lot more SSD innovation in 2010.

G.Skill Sniper 8GB CL7 DDR3 memory reviewG.Skill designed another 8GB low voltage DDR3 kit (2x 4GB) that can be set at 1600 MHz yet still run a CAS latency of 7. And that is truly interesting because the denser the ICs get, the higher latency typically gets.

G.Skill 2x4GB CL7 1600 MHz Trident DDR3 reviewWe feel that more memory is rather important, and in that trend memory manufacturers have started to increase the density of DIMM modules. Where 1 and 2GB DIMM modules have been the standard, we now see very good progress in 4 GB DIMM modules. Today we\'ll do things a little different, G.Skill designed a 8GB low voltage DDR3 kit (2x 4GB) that can be set at 1600 MHz yet still run a CAS latency of 7. And that is truly interesting because the denser the ICs get, the higher latency typically gets.

G.Skill Flare DDR3 2000 MHZ C7 AMD kit reviewWe test and review the G.Skill Flare DDR3 2000 MHZ C7 AMD kit. These kits are optimized for AMD platforms preferably with the new six-core X6 processors, and in specific some ASUS motherboards. The kit we'll be testing today obviously comes from that series and is a 2,000MHz CL7-9-7-24 1.65V 4GB (2GBx2) DDR3 kit with its latest Flare heatsinks.

G.Skill Phoenix PRO 120GB SSD reviewThe SSD tested today once again is the Phoenix series from G.Skill. After we tested their 100GB Phoenix SSD (which received a very positive review) G.Skill instantly requested if we would like to review the 120GB PRO model. Both drives pretty much are the same thing, same controller ... The 100GB Phoenix uses Samsung memory though but the trick is that there is 20GB extra volume space available on the new 120GB Pro (compared to the 100GB model) for nearly the same price. A new Firmware for the SandForce 1200 based controller that is inside this 120GB model simply reserves less NAND flash memory for its data-compression scheme. As a result the overall write performance could be a tiny bit slower, but only a few percent as best. It however will give you 20 GB more space to play around with at the same price. And since price per GB is everything in the land of SSDs -- this certainly is a significant for any vendor and for you as an end-user.